Good morning. It’s Thursday January 25, 2018 and this is your first early morning briefing.

Tonight’s Premieres:

Paramount Network: Lip Sync Battle at 10p

VH1: RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars at 8p

Tonight’s Finales:

Bravo: Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles at 9p

DIY: Tiny Paradise at 9p

Great American Country: We Bought the Farm at 9:30p

IN THE NEWS

CBS is reviving Murphy Brown, with Candice Bergen returning to star as the testy TV anchor, and creator Diane English onboard as writer/exec producer. CBS gave the comedy from Warner Bros. Television a 13-episode series production commitment. It’s a season of revivals – the move follows NBC’s Will & Grace reboot, and ABC’s upcoming Roseanne resurrection.

Meryl Streep has joined the season 2 cast of HBO’s Big Little Lies, as the mother of Perry Wright (Emmy winner Alexander Skarsgard). She joins fellow Oscar winners Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, who star and exec produce.

Who’s the fairest of them all? Nonfiction producers trade group NPACT released its second annual survey of broadcast and cable networks and OTTs, ranking which are producers’ favorites to pitch. A&E and ID made the top 10 in more categories than any other networks, followed by History, DIY and CBS. ID and Smithsonian Channel were the only nets to rank #1 in 2 categories, and Showtime was named “Best Network to Work with Overall,” with CBS and A&E close behind. A&E, ID and Netflix tied for “Most Respected Network.”

Comcast reported total revenue was up 4% to $21.9 billion in 4Q17, with NBCUniversal revenue up 3.9% to $8.8 billion. “Our TV businesses produced strong results, demonstrating the power of our sports, news and entertainment content,” said CEO Brian Roberts.

PwC released its Q4 2017 Deal Insights report on the media and telecom industries – and 2017 was a big deal. Volumes increased by 29% from 2016 to 2017, reaching 876. Advertising & Marketing and Internet & Information were the most active in volume, while Film/Content, Telecommunications, and Broadcasting were deal value leaders, mainly due to mega-deals. And 2018 looks to be another banner year, predicts Bart Spiegel, US Media & Telecommunications deals partner, as companies look to expand their capabilities and their portfolio. “Many of the deal theses underpinning 2017 M&A will continue into 2018,” said Spiegel.

Judge Judy Sheindlin, Big Ticket Entertainment and CBS are being sued by 2 producers who helped launch the 22-year-old hit for a 5% piece of the reported $95 million Sheindlin got from CBS last year for the show’s library. Kaye Switzer and now deceased Sandi Spreckman have been to court in the past to enforce their rights to the program; this lawsuit seeks $4.75 million.

Call for submissions: Cynopsis is compiling a special Upfronts Guide for the Cynopsis web site. To be included, networks must submit information here: https://goo.gl/forms/e8ffbxbgBrYjaZsA3. For sponsorship opportunities, please contact Mike@Cynopsis.com. Deadline is February 8.

National Geographic is partnering with Sprint to launch “Chasing Genius: Unlimited Innovation,” a challenge that will “crowdsource genius” from around the globe to create a community of people that believe they can make an impact on the world. One-minute videos are being accepted; winning idea gets $25,000 for further development.

The $1000 bonuses The Walt Disney Co. plans to give to more than 125,000 employees, as well as a new $50 million investment into education for employees, are due to the recent tax reform, said Disney. The education initiative will be available to nearly 88,000 hourly employees.

The mother of John Bernacker, the stuntman who died July 12 after a fall on the set of The Walking Dead, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing AMC of filming the drama “cheaply and ultimately unsafely.” AMC said it complies with industry standards and take safety “extremely seriously.”

In addition to our talented TV Awards finalists and Buyers & Planners honorees, we’re proud to announce that one of the insurance industry’s most distinguished executives, Rand Harbert, EVP and Chief Agency, Sales & Marketing Officer of State Farm, will be receiving the prestigious Luminary Award. Don’t miss this gathering of television’s best and brightest! Be sure to register by Jan 30th before ticket prices increase!

Anonymous Content and Paramount Television landed the rights to develop a series based on the MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale), focused on the small group of survivors of a global pandemic.

Lionsgate signed a new overall television deal with unscripted TV producers Katy Wallin and Stephanie Bloch Chambers. Under the agreement, the duo will create original nonfiction programming and formats for television and digital platforms through their new Wallin-Chambers Entertainment banner.

Tiffany Haddish (Girls Trip) and her She Ready production company inked a first-look deal with HBO. Haddish will also star in TBS’s upcoming The Last OG with Tracy Morgan, among a myriad of other projects.

Pretty Little Liars exec producer/showrunner Charlie Craig, with I. Marlene King, will take the same titles for PLL spinoff pilot The Perfectionists. King wrote the pilot based on the book series.

Independent prodco The WorkShop has entered into a partnership with PGA tour champion Rickie Fowler and his newly-formed Main Event Productions on a new docu-series, Rezball. Fowler, who is part Navajo, will serve as executive producer on the docu-series, following the lives of the Chinle High School boy’s basketball team based on the Navajo Nation reservation. Production began earlier this month.

CMJ Productions struck a series development agreement with cult crime book author and inventor of baseball’s “sabermetrics,” Bill James, whose Popular Crime features unconventional sleuthing techniques.

Liz Friendlander (Conviction) will direct and exec produce the first episode of ABC crime drama The Rookie, starring and exec produced by Nathan Fillion (Castle).

ABC gave a pilot order to drama Get Christie Love!, from Courtney Kemp (Power) and producers Vin Diesel, Debra Martin Chase and Shana C. Waterman. The order revives the 1974-75 series.

Sonar Entertainment has entered into a first-look deal with UK-based Wildseed Studios encompassing all Wildseed kids and family content. The partnership will also focus on developing and producing strategic and incentivized pipelines for creator driven properties from the UK and North America, with Sonar acting as worldwide distributor.

ADVERTISING

If the Super Bowl is any indication, the advertising market is “pretty hot,” said NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke in an earnings call Tuesday. NBC is getting an average of $5 million per 3-second spot for the big game, up 15-20% from last year, and inventory is “essentially sold out,” said Burke.

TV networks are scoring the most spend on brand integration, according to Advertiser Perceptions’ 2017 Content Marketing Study. 76% of brand integration dollars land at TV networks, with 45% on linear content and 32% on TV network digital content. Digital pure play reels in just 24% of spending. As for tradition ads, 62% or respondents in the study said integrated marketing efforts are more effective.

COMING UP

Discovery’s first “Motor Mega Week” runs Monday, February 26 at 9p through Monday, March 5 at 11p. The event gets into gear with 4 consecutive nights of car builds culminating in a Mega Race finale. Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings, Twin Turbos and Shifting Gears with Aaron Kaufman will all premiere during the week.

The midseason premiere of AMC’s The Walking Dead will run for 82 minutes, instead of the usual 60. The zombie drama returns Sunday, February 25, presumably telling the end of the story of the-popular-character-whose-name-we-will-not-say who was bitten by a zombie.

Added to the lineup of the 60th Annual Grammy Awards are Emmylou Harris with Chris Stapleton; Zuleyka Rivera, who will perform with Luis Fonsi and Danny Yankee; and Sting. Show airs Sunday, January 28 on CBS.

Fox’s Empire and Star are back from winter hiatus on Wednesday, March 28 at 8p and 9p.

CBS Corporation and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum have created a series of CBS Cares PSAs to honor the victims of the Nazi Holocaust and mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The campaign will debut with two PSAs featuring 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley tomorrow, January 26 and Saturday, January 27. A 60-second PSA featuring the lives of children before they became Holocaust victims will debut in primetime on February 2 and will be scheduled throughout the year.

The April 18 episode of CW’s Riverdale will focus on a Riverdale High production of “Carrie: The Musical,” and feature 11 songs.

The 2018 Bounce Trumpet Awards took place last weekend, and among the memorable moments were a musical tribute to So So Def Recordings founder and honoree Jermaine Dupri, a tribute to honoree Cameo and performances by Arrested Development, Michel’le and Major, among others. The event celebrating African-American achievements will air on Bounce Sunday, February 11 at 9p.

Outdoor Channel’s Major League Fishing is back on Saturdays from 2-4p for a new season of the Summit Select tournament. Outdoor Sportsman Group also acquired the programming library of MLF (including MLF Raw, MLF Extended Cast and highlights), for its outdoor SVOD service, MyOutdoorTV.

DIGITAL DATA

In response to reports that Kremlin-connected accounts were part of a social media campaign, #ReleaseTheMemo, aimed at discrediting Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California) wrote a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. “This latest example of Russian interference is in keeping with Moscow’s concerted, covert, and continuing campaign to manipulate public opinion and erode trust in our law enforcement and intelligence institutions,” said the lawmakers, who asked Facebook and Twitter to investigate by Friday how many Russian-linked accounts were involved in the effort, what the extent of their activity was, and how many users were exposed to it.

Nielsen has added Instagram owned measurement into its Social Content Ratings platform, which also includes Facebook and Twitter. SCR offers insight into the engagement driven by owned accounts, those officially associated with the program, as well as organic activity between friends and fans.

Netflix is raising its marketing spend by a whopping 50% in 2018 versus last year. “Our testing results indicate this is wise,” said the company in a 4Q17 letter to shareholders. “We want great content, and we want the budget to make the hits we have really big, drive our membership growth.” According to iSpot.tv, Netflix spent $46.3 million on national TV advertising in 2017.

IBM Watson Media has partnered with the Recording Academy to use AI to streamline operations behind the Grammys red carpet on Sunday, January 28. Watson will categorize video, tagging celebrities and topics; analyze photos for color and look to create a gallery of similar styles; and analyze audio cues to generate insights into emotional tone in nominated songs.

El Rey Network’s The Director’s Chair and Man at Arms: Art of War are now available on audience-focused aggregation platform VRV, featuring premium SVOD channels alongside a curated house channel, VRV Select.

CNBC is offering an audio news brief for HomePod, Apple’s new wireless speaker for the home. Ask Siri, and users will be able to get news updates throughout the business day, and weekend look ahead features from CNBC anchors and reporters.

GOING GLOBAL

Boat Rocker Media has acquired FremantleMedia’s Kids & Family Entertainment division, headquartered in London. “Today marks a major step in our expansion on the international stage,” said John Young, CEO and David Fortier and Ivan Schneeberg, co-executive chairmen of Boat Rocker. “We have deep respect for the unique expertise and brands that the FremantleMedia Kids & Family team have created over the last 8 years and are excited for future collaborations.”

Gaumont is establishing a new office in Cologne, Germany, slated to open July 1. Sabine de Mardt, former director of fiction and film at Warner Bros. Inernational TV Production Deutchland GmbH, will serve as president.

Globo telenovela Rock Story has been licensed to Israel. In Brazil, the show reached an average 37 million daily viewers and a 44% share.

Hey Qween debuts on Canada’s OUTtv Thursday, February 1 at 9:30p, following RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars. Hot T will slip in at 10p.

CASTING

Lolita Davidovich (Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders) is set to recur on ABC’s How to Get Away With Murder later this season….John Malkovich (Dangerous Liaisons) will guest on Showtime drama Billions as a Russian billionaire. Season 3 premieres Sunday, March 25 at 10p.

USA’s WWE Monday Night RAW scored its best ratings in almost three years with its 25th anniversary show, claiming the #1 spot on cable overall and #3 in all of television among A18-49. The show ranked #1 across all of television among M18-49, M25-54 and M18-34, and propelled USA Network to rank as the #1 network across all of television in primetime among Men 18-49, 25-54, 18-34 and 2+.

Premiere week of Univision’s Cronicas: Jose Jose averaged 1.5 million total viewers and 232,000 among A18-34.

Sunday’s SAG Awards on TBS and TNT delivered 2.7 million viewers and .8 among A18-49, according to Nielsen. Opposite Fox’s NFC Championship game the show was down 31% in viewers and 33% in the demo versus last year, but up from its Saturday airing 2 years ago.

In syndication, Entertainment Tonight and Inside Edition each rose 3% from the week prior to hit season highs of 3.4. Dr. Phil (3.6, up 13%) scored its best ratings in 2 months, and Ellen Degeneres hit a season high 2.7 (up 4%).

Top 10 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of 1/8/18 ranked in order byHH Rtg

Judge Judy (CTD) 7.8AA

Family Feud (2/T) 7.3 AA

Jeopardy (CTD) 7.0 AA

Wheel of Fortune (CTD) 6.9 AA

The Big Bang Theory (WB) 5.6 AA

Dr. Phil (CTD) 3.6 AA

Entertainment Tonight (CTD) 3.4 AA

Inside Edition (CTD) 3.4 AA

Ellen DeGeneres (WB) 2.7

Modern Family (2/T) 2.7 A

Top 10 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of1/8/18 ranked in order byA18-49 Rtg

The Big Bang Theory (WB) 2.3 AA

Family Feud (2/T) 2.1 AA

Judge Judy (CTD) 1.8 AA

Modern Family (2/T) 1.4 AA

Wheel of Fortune (CTD) 1.4 AA

Jeopardy (CTD) 1.4 AA

Family Guy (2/T) 1.0 AA

The Goldbergs 1.1 AA

Entertainment Tonight (CTD) 0.9 AA

Last Man Standing (2/T) 0.8 AA

The Binge Report for theweek of Jan. 15

(Title of Show / Share of Steams)

The End of the F***king World (Channel 4/Netflix) – 2.59%

La casa de papel aka Money Heist (Antena 3/Netflix) – 2.36%

Riverdale (The CW) – 2.31%

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) – 2.26%

Vikings (History) – 2.06%

Friends (NBC) – 1.95%

The Big Bang Theory (CBS) – 1.88%

Black Mirror (Netflix) 1.85%

The Flash (The CW) 1.44%

How to Get Away with Murder (ABC) 1.30%

The weekly Binge Report tracks and ranks shows based on the number of episodes consumed by the millions of fans across the globe in our TV Time app.

Live + Same Day Viewers AA (millions):Tuesday, January 23, 2017time period averages

Source: NTI, Galaxy as dated Live+SD

CBS: 11.34 million

NCIS 13.76, Bull 11.06, NCIS: New Orleans 9.20

NBC: 7.91 million

Ellen’s Game of Games 7.52, This Is Us 9.33, Chicago Med 6.87

FOX: 3.43 million

Lethal Weapon 4.57, LA to Vegas 2.64, The Mick 1.93

ABC: 2.69 million

The Middle 4.03, Fresh Off the Boat at 2.71, black-ish 2.66, Modern Family 2.44 Match Game 2.16

Showtime Networks promoted Stephen Espinoza to President, Sports and Event Programming. Under the leadership of Espinoza, who joined the company in late 2011, Showtime has become a leading outlet for live boxing.

Raw Travel TV elevated Paul Rowan from Head of Research to Vice President of Distribution & Research. Rowan has been working with the AIM Tell-A-Vision Group show since 2013.

Paul Greenberg his leaving his post as Executive Vice President and GM of Fyi and head of A+E Networks’ in-house digital studio to launch a digital video consulting firm, Butter Works. Greenberg will be replaced by Fyi EVP of Programming and Development, Gena McCarthy.

PebblePost elevated Jacquelyn Goldberg to the position of Vice President Sales, Financial Services. Previously, Goldberg had been Director of Sales.

Roger Werner, former ESPN CEO, is joining LiveXLive, a premium network devoted to live music and music-related video content, as special advisor to the company.

IN MEMORIAM

Reality TV star Joel Taylor (Storm Chasers) died January 23 while on a cruise. He was 38. “He was one of the most level-headed chasers on the roads and truly a classy guy,” said storm-chasing group Team Western OK Chasers on Facebook.

This Day in History: 1937 – Soap opera The Guiding Light first broadcast on NBC radio.

Today’s Trivia Question: Which sitcom family originally came from Smokey Corners, West Virginia before moving to California? (Email trivia@cynopsis.comwith your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: A limit of four correct answers from each time zone will be selected.).

JOB OPENING:ASSOCIATE PRODUCER/NBC NEWS/DC: We are looking for an Associate Producer for NBC News to assist with full scope of production including research, booking and interviewing. 3+ yrs editorial prod exp at the network or cable level. Full info/apply HERE (1/30)

JOB OPENING:PROJECT MGR/NBC SPORTS/Stamford: Operate as a logistical hub of the motion graphics projects as assigned. 5+ yrs at a network or broadcast design agency. Knowl of tech design in TV. Full info/apply HERE (1/30)

JOB OPENING:Esports PROGRAM MGR/Psyonix/San Diego: Mng the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) w/a focus on our community & its players. Mng all Championship and Rival Series budgets, proposals, contracts. Intimate knwlg of RLCS a must as well as strong motivation & strong work ethic. Full info/apply HERE (1/27)

JOB OPENING:Esports LEAGUE OPERATIONS/Psyonix/San Diego: Organized League Opspro to grow/support the hit game, Rocket League! Mng dvlpmnt, mngmnt, and maintenance of player relations for the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) and Rocket League Rival Series (RLRS). Full info/apply HERE(1/27)

JOB OPENING:DIRECTOR, LIVE SUPPORT/ Psyonix/San Diego: Set the vision/ tone for all Psyonix & Rocket League live support services, incl QA, Customer Care & Localization. 8+ yrs of mngmnt exp in related fields. Passion for gaming & knowledge of Rocket League & its community a +. Full info/apply HERE(1/27)

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Beenox/Joliet IL: Create animations of quality in collaboration with the Designers, Programmers and Artists that fits the established style and vision. Minimum of one (1) year of experience as an animator in the video game industry or any other related industry; Excellent knowledge of traditional animation and anatomy; Knowledge of 3D Studio Max, Maya and/or [...]

Dateline/NBC News/NYC: Assist in all aspects of the production of non-fiction, non-scripted content for distribution. At least 3 yrs editorial prod exp in long form programming for ntwk or cable operations. DV shooting experience, including DSLR a must. Full info/apply HERE

Moviefone is casting the next Mr./Ms. Moviefone: The new Mr./Ms. Moviefone will serve as a face and voice of the brand and may fulfill various duties such as red carpet appearances, conduct interviews, create movie/TV reviews, & work in other brand extensions, like social media outreach. Full details